Silent Hunter 5
Encyclopedia
Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic is a submarine
simulation
for Microsoft Windows
developed by Ubisoft Romania
and published by Ubisoft
.
U-boat to take on the Allied Forces in battles across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Players command the U-boat as a submarine captain from a first-person view in a campaign that spans 1939-1943.
's Steven Hopper gave it a 5 out of 10, saying "The game offers some deep elements, but the overwhelming interface and steep learning curve make it very difficult to get into. The campaign missions are fairly low-key, with quick missions not really matching the depth of the gameplay. Many bugs and performance issues will also bog down your ability to enjoy the game."
3DJuegos' Álvaro Castellano Córdova gave the game an 85 out of 100, saying that "Silent Hunter 5 is the most accurate simulation of World War II submarine conflicts in the Atlantic. With more testing and less bugs this game could have been the best in the series", while PC Gamer UK awarded it a score of 77 out of 100, criticizing the bugs and DRM
but saying that without them, "it would be the best Silent Hunter yet."
In 2011, Ubisoft announced that they were stopping any patches and support for Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic.
Within 24 hours of the game's release, pirated copies turned up on torrent and newsgroups sites with the activation disabled but not fully removed, allowing users to copy and play only a portion of the game without needing an active internet connection. On March 7, Ubisoft's servers experienced an outage, rendering the game temporarily unplayable for around 5% of users. The server failure was caused by a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Ubisoft also released a statement via Twitter on March 8, stating that Silent Hunter 5 remains uncracked. On July 12, a new crack for Silent Hunter 5 was released. Gaming news sites have not yet commented on the crack.
were taken offline and kept down for nearly 24 hours. Ubisoft claimed that this was a result of the number of users attempting to access their servers to play. As a result of this downtime, legitimate owners of both games were unable to log in and play them in any form. Ubisoft later released a statement claiming that hackers were attacking the DRM servers, retracting their previous claim. The servers were attacked again on March 9, with Ubisoft claiming on their Twitter page that they were attempting to repair the problem.
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
developed by Ubisoft Romania
Ubisoft Romania
Ubisoft Romania was founded in October 1992 and was the first production studio established by Ubisoft outside France.- History :Starting with only 4 programmers and 2 graphic artists, in time, the Bucharest studio has grown to around 800 people working in different fields of activity, in 2010, and...
and published by Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
.
Overview
Silent Hunter 5 takes players behind the periscope of a German Type VIIGerman Type VII submarine
Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. The Type VII was based on earlier German submarine designs going back to the World War I Type UB III, designed through the Dutch dummy company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag which was set up by Germany after...
U-boat to take on the Allied Forces in battles across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Players command the U-boat as a submarine captain from a first-person view in a campaign that spans 1939-1943.
Key features
- Ability to walk through all of the submarine in first-person view.
- Direct crew interaction and a simulation of the tension and fear of the crew.
- A new objective-driven dynamic campaign mode
- Allied ships will respond to players advances and new locations, upgrades and resupply will alter the campaign dynamically.
- A brand-new user interface supporting a beginner mode and a mode where the player can control the whole submarine on their own.
- Improved graphics and realism.
- A DRM-system which requires a constant connection to the Internet.
- crew AI recommends things (search patterns, targets, etc.)
Reception
The game's reception has been mixed. GameZoneGameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
's Steven Hopper gave it a 5 out of 10, saying "The game offers some deep elements, but the overwhelming interface and steep learning curve make it very difficult to get into. The campaign missions are fairly low-key, with quick missions not really matching the depth of the gameplay. Many bugs and performance issues will also bog down your ability to enjoy the game."
3DJuegos' Álvaro Castellano Córdova gave the game an 85 out of 100, saying that "Silent Hunter 5 is the most accurate simulation of World War II submarine conflicts in the Atlantic. With more testing and less bugs this game could have been the best in the series", while PC Gamer UK awarded it a score of 77 out of 100, criticizing the bugs and DRM
DRM
-Information technology:*Digital rights management, access control technologies that limit the usage of digital content and devices*Data Reference Model, one of the five reference models of the Federal Enterprise Architecture...
but saying that without them, "it would be the best Silent Hunter yet."
In 2011, Ubisoft announced that they were stopping any patches and support for Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic.
DRM restrictions
In January 2010, Ubisoft announced the Online Services Platform, which forces customers to not only authenticate on the first game launch, but to remain online continually while playing, with the game pausing if the network connection is lost. This makes it impossible to play the game offline or resell it, and means that should Ubisoft's servers go down, the game would be unplayable. Silent Hunter 5 uses this DRM solution.Within 24 hours of the game's release, pirated copies turned up on torrent and newsgroups sites with the activation disabled but not fully removed, allowing users to copy and play only a portion of the game without needing an active internet connection. On March 7, Ubisoft's servers experienced an outage, rendering the game temporarily unplayable for around 5% of users. The server failure was caused by a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Ubisoft also released a statement via Twitter on March 8, stating that Silent Hunter 5 remains uncracked. On July 12, a new crack for Silent Hunter 5 was released. Gaming news sites have not yet commented on the crack.
Server downtime
On March 7, 2010, at approximately 8pm GMT, Ubisoft's DRM servers for Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed IIAssassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed II is a historical third-person action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is the second video game installment of the Assassin's Creed series, and is a sequel to the 2007 video...
were taken offline and kept down for nearly 24 hours. Ubisoft claimed that this was a result of the number of users attempting to access their servers to play. As a result of this downtime, legitimate owners of both games were unable to log in and play them in any form. Ubisoft later released a statement claiming that hackers were attacking the DRM servers, retracting their previous claim. The servers were attacked again on March 9, with Ubisoft claiming on their Twitter page that they were attempting to repair the problem.